I don’t get turbulence. It is absolutely clear out, we are above the clouds with the sunset in front of us (being 4 hours later than scheduled) and yet the place is buffeted about like a paper cup in a river. What was it someone said about the Holy Spirit being like the wind?

I always have such mixed feelings about SBL. I have a great sense of inadequacy, see the recent Chronicle article, but I love the interaction. Still, it is always very humbling (a good thing of course) to be with so many people who are so much smarter and more knowledgeable than I.

Speaking of smarts and knowledge. Have you ever thought about the difference between these two concepts? I am probably a fairly clever person, but it feels like it takes a million repetitions to get something stuck in my brain. This is why I maintain that I would have benefitted greatly from the old and rejected teaching methods that emphasized drills and rote memorization. Knowledge is harder to come by, you have to go and seek it out and then you have to retain it. The next step is the hard bit, take that knowledge and do something useful with it. Once you have done that, being both knowledgeable and smart, you have broken through into genius.

Right now they are showing Transformers on the plane. I had such high hopes for that movie. I saw it on the way out to Phoenix two weeks ago. It was good, but not great. Have I mentioned that US Airways is a joke? I have to pay for my meal (skip that, gummy bears will do) and for the headset for the movie? C’mon. You screwed up my flights, have lost my luggage in my last two trips with you (leading to my now brining one carryon with a suit, etc. in it in addition to my bigger bag) and you want me to pay for my chicken salad sandwich?

Some other things I have learned today:

The new Dr. Who is excellent. “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood” are just brilliant. Tip of the chapeaux to my bro for the ipod shows.

Don’t eat a whole bag of gummy bears in one sitting. Trust me.

Know that meetings can and will always be cancelled.

“blah” is actually a hard word for me to type since the b l h are all with the right hand.